Anyone have any copycat recipes they've tried to make? I've been trying to make this seared baby corn that I used to LOVE as a kid when my parents would take me to the local benihana style "hibachi" place as a kid.
The recipe is pretty simple (it's basically just a standard Japanese steakhouse fried rice but with corn):
1. Get some fresh (not canned) baby corn from wherever you can find it (trader joes has it more reliably than my local Asian supermarkets for some reason)
2. heat up a large, flat pan with veg oil to as hot as possible without smoking
3. cook the baby corn in the pan for 2-3 minutes (tossing only once or twice so they get good sear marks)
4. add in some garlic butter and cook for another 1 minute
5. coat it with soy sauce and cook until most of it evaporates.
6. remove from pan, should still be crunchy/firm when done.
This is the closest I've gotten the recipe (in fact, the times are probably off from what I usually do because I mostly do it from memory). The original had this really weird umami flavor that must either come from the fried soy sauce, garlic powder/salt, or MSG that I haven't been able to replicate fully yet.
Like seriously, I would compare the weird umami notes to like the first taste of a really good marinara sauce... Haven't been able to figure it out since though.

>>21474893 (OP)
also, i forgot to mention, i've tried to do research into the type of baby corn because i noticed that the trader joes brand is paler and sweeter than I remember. it took me hours to find out that baby corn is literally just young corn and it can be made from a variety of regular corn strains, i'm guessing the kind I got as a kid was a field corn with a darker yellow, while the kind I can find at groceries must be a type of sweet corn... i've considered going to the point of ordering like bulk field corn baby corn but I wouldn't know how to store it properly.

>>21474893 (OP)
i am sorry but i cannot read all of that thank you

>>21474917
huh?

>>21474922
much better, please keep posts to this length for easy read thank you

>>21474930
can t reda

>>21474917
>>21474930
>me make corn I ate before
>anon try copycat recipe too?
>Copycat Seared Baby Corn (Hibachi Style)
>Get corn
>Sear in hot oiled pan, 2–3 min, flip
>Add garlic butter, cook 1 min
>Splash soy sauce, evaporate
>Remove while crunchy
>Still not same umami flavor tho
>need fried soy sauce, garlic salt/powder, or MSG?

They may have soaked it in something to give it extra taste. Perhaps a salt / MSG brine?

>>21474996
I think the garlic powder/salt or corn strain theory is the most probable, they would bring it out to the table and it would look pretty fresh and dry
But I just bought a few packs from trader joe's and I'll see if this works at all if the thread it up over the next day. I don't think they would really do anything super fancy to prepare it before cooking since it wasn't like a high class establishment

The hot plate at specialty restaurants seems to retain the delicious gravy and work wonders.

>>21475019
usually they scrape it and clean it pretty good every time they cook a new course.
I have to imagine the flavour is either coming from the hot plate being so hot (they have a massive vent above the "hibachi"/ichiban hoods so they can make it basically oil-burning level without smoking up the entire place, which you can't do at home) so the veg is better caramalized, the compound butter they put on it, or maybe some other thing (maybe they're shaking a flavoured salt or MSG instead of regular salt?). It could also be the oil they use (maybe peanut oil or soybean oil?)

Starbucks used to have these molasses cookies (maybe they still do, but haven't seen them in a while), I double all the spices though

https://fivesilverspoons.com/flour-bakerys-ginger-molasses-cookies/

>>21475029
>>21475003
let me clarify that the reason i think the garlic salt/powder theory is more probable is that i've tested it a few times, and it seems *closer* to what i remember, but not exactly there. it's probably a combination of different variables that I can't control for or tech out of until I decide to go full fanatic mode and either track down someone who works at these places, buy a massive hotplate, and/or go to the training school myself

>>21474893 (OP)
Could that unique flavor have been from a specific brand of soy sauce?

I remember really liking the baked potato soup at Tony Romas so I downloaded a copycat recipe and have made it a few times. Same with the Olive Garden zuppa Toscana